ETS!,
In response to the letter about the fake Makah Web site: the Seattle Times mentioned it in an article shortly after the whale was killed. They said that it was traced to a post office box in Vancouver, B.C., rented by one of two "animal rights activists" who had been recently busted by the RCMP for mailing razor blade-lined envelopes to hunters and member of the fur industry. The Makah are considering legal action.
On a related topic: Paul Watson has been going around claiming to have been a medic at Wounded Knee in 1973. He says he assisted Leonard Crowdog in an operation to remove a bullet, and that he had a vision interpreted by Wallace Black Elk which gave him his whale-saving mission. And that he was adopted as a "warrior brother" by the Lakota Nation. Well, here's some interesting words from Carter Camp, Wounded Knee veteran and AIM leader during that period:
"This past week I was with Crowdog and neither of us remember the events he outlined. Except the obvious--Rocky was shot, Crowdog operated, and people in the medic area helped. The medic people were purposely kept from any involvement outside their medical duties. This was at their own request to remain a neutral group. They did not participate in any 'activities' or any decisions, they carried no weapons and stayed separate, so if this guy was 'honored' or 'named,' the warriors missed it!
"Whatever he did (if he was there), I am deeply offended by his assertions that he was guided in his misdeeds by a 'vision' he was given at WK'73. We who were there would like to re-interpret his vision for him to show him the Makah, not eco-terrorists, are the ones saving our whale relatives. His view is insulting to those of us who fought at Wounded Knee '73 and more importantly it is insulting to the spirits of those buried there because of people like Watson himself. Maybe we could politely invite him to return to the Knee to Smoke once again with Rocky, Black Elk, Crowdog, and myself (I'm sure they will agree) so we can hear his 'vision' once again and give him the true meaning."
And this from Ward Churchill, Colorado AIM: "...it's not just that his name doesn't come up in any of the literature on Wounded Knee. I've queried Ron Rosen, who was in fact a medic at the Knee, and he doesn't remember Watson being there. Uncle Wallace [Black Elk] doesn't remember assigning any white guys to save a bunch of 'buffalo of the sea.' Neither Russ [Means] nor Aaron Two Elk recall Watson as having been there. Nobody recalls a naming ceremony being conducted for anyone, much less a white medic. Nobody remembers any white guys being naturalized as Oglala citizens, except the 7-member VVAW [Vietnam Veterans Against the War] contingent--White Bob, Hillbilly, et. al.--and Watson was definitely not one of them."
And by the way, contrary to Lansing Scott's claim that this is all just simple "polarization," I think this is an essential argument to clarify and hopefully deal with a really annoying and long-term tendency toward misanthropy in the environmental movement. Misanthropy is, after all, racism's little brother.